Every 7 years, or so, we get a bad tent caterpillar infestation. And every 20+ years, we get one that is so much worse.
This was one of those years.
I'm writing from the Left Coast of Canada and we get blessed with the western tent caterpillar (
Malacosoma californicum pluviale). Normally we remove the nests and destroy them with
chickens, fire, or wasps (yellow jackets love eating these guys! - about the only thing yellow jackets are good for)
This year, there were nests too high up to reach, so we left them. Here's what happened:
- First clutch of caterpillars left home.
- Second clutch moved in and made the nest bigger
- third clutch moved in and made the nest even bigger
- By now, it's late August. Thank goodness caterpillar season is over... but why is that nest getting whiter, denser, and still moving?
A kind of Tussock Moth (the ones that hurt you if you touch them that the
chickens hate to eat) had moved into the nest by the thousands. We ended up having to cut down most of the tree (mostly dead from moth damage by now) to get to the nests. But when we started opening up the web to squish them, the yellow jackets swarmed us and devoured as many caterpillars as they could find. We kept coming back a few hours later to open up more web and back come the wasps.
We learned a lot of new things this year.
- caterpillar tents get reused by more than just tent caterpillars
- yellow jackets have an actual use - even if I still hate them. I hate the stinging beasts mildly less now.
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